Oculus Rift delayed, new design unveiled

Shipping of the Oculus Rift has been pushed back, with the Oculus VR team now hoping to get the product into the hands of its Kickstarter backers by March 2013. The reason it missed its planned December release? Turns out it was too popular.

"When we launched our Kickstarter campaign in August, we hoped to sell a few hundred kits to game developers and virtual reality enthusiasts around the world," wrote Palmer Lucky, the Rift's creator, in a Kickstarter update . "Instead, we were blown away by the overwhelming response from a community of almost 10,000 backers."

"Designing, sourcing, and manufacturing thousands of developer kits is no small feat. Since our Kickstarter, we've been up against the wall, working around the clock to produce and distribute over 7,500 units in just 4 short, crazy months. We've had to modify our original design for mass-manufacturing and, at the same time, balance additional features with our tight schedule."

While the redesign is complete, the problem now is the length of time necessary to manufacture 7,500 visions of the future. "All together, preparing the factory for mass production of a product like the Rift takes approximately 90 days."

The update is lengthy and detailed, and also provides plenty of information on the final specification of the development kit, including its 1280x800 7" display, and a new custom designed sensor.

A three month delay may not be ideal, but it seems a small price to pay for a device that will bring us one step closer to the future that was promised us in Back to the Future II.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Phil has been PC gaming since the '90s, when RPGs had dice rolls and open world adventures were weird and French. Now he's the deputy editor of PC Gamer; commissioning features, filling magazine pages, and knowing where the apostrophe goes in '90s. He plays Scout in TF2, and isn't even ashamed.